A few years ago, the editors of Guitar World compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.

The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (100) and builds to a truly epic finish with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (01).

On June 10, we kicked off a summer blockbuster of our own — a no-holds-barred six-string shootout. We pitted Guitar World's top 64 guitar solos against each other in an NCAA-style, 64-team single-elimination tournament. Every day, we asked you to cast your vote in a different guitar-solo matchup as dictated by the 64-team-style bracket. Now Rounds 1 and 2 have come and gone, leaving us with 16 guitar solos and eight matchups.

So ...

WELCOME TO THE SWEET 16 ROUND, where all 16 still-standing solos will go head to head before your eyes! As always, you can vote once per matchup, and the voting ends as soon as the next matchup is posted.

In some cases, genre will clash against genre; a thrash solo might compete against a Southern rock solo. But please get real, people! They're all guitar solos, played on guitars, by guitarists, most of them in some subset of the umbrella genre of rock. When choosing, it might have to come down to, "Which solo is more original and creative? Which is more iconic or important? or Which one kicks a larger, more impressive assemblage of asses?"

Today, for the first time since the Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time readers poll began on June 10, a guitarist is squaring off against himself! Yes, it's Jimmy Page against Jimmy Page! (This shouldn't be too surprising, since the Led Zeppelin axman is responsible for four of our final 16 guitar solos; it was bound to happen at some point.) Be sure to cast your vote for his classic solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (01) or his equally classic "Heartbreaker" (16) solo.

If Jimmy Page is the Steven Spielberg of guitarists, then “Stairway” is his Close Encounters. Built around a solid, uplifting theme—man’s quest for salvation—the epic slowly gains momentum and rushes headlong to a shattering conclusion. The grand finale in this case is the song’s thrill-a-second guitar solo.

Page remembers: “I’d been fooling around with the acoustic guitar and came up with several different sections which flowed together nicely. I soon realized that it could be the perfect vehicle for something I’d been wanting to do for a while: to compose something that would start quietly, have the drums come in the middle, and then build to a huge crescendo. I also knew that I wanted the piece to speed up, which is something musicians aren’t supposed to do.

“So I had all the structure of it, and ran it by [bassist] John Paul Jones so he could get the idea of it—[drummer] John Bonham and [singer] Robert Plant had gone out for the night—and then on the following day we got into it with Bonham. You have to realize that, at first, there was a hell of a lot for everyone to remember on this one. But as we were sort of routining it, Robert started writing the lyrics, and much to his surprise, he wrote a huge percentage of it right there and then.”

Plant recalls the experience: “I was sitting next to Page in front of a fire at our studio in Headley Grange. He had written this chord sequence and was playing it for me. I was holding a pencil and paper, when, suddenly, my hand was writing out the words: ‘There’s a lady who’s sure, all that glitters is gold, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.’ I just sat there and looked at the words and almost leaped out of my seat. Looking back, I suppose I sat down at the right moment.”

While the spontaneous nature of Plant’s anthemic lyrics came as a pleasant surprise, the best was yet to come. The beautifully constructed guitar solo that Guitar World readers rated the “best ever” was, believe it or not, improvised.

“I winged it,” says Page with a touch of pride. “I had prepared the overall structure of the guitar parts, but not the actual notes. When it came time to record the solo I warmed up and recorded three of them. They were all quite different from each other. All three are still on the master tape, but the one we used was the best solo, I can tell you that.

“I thought ‘Stairway’ crystallized the essence of the band. It had everything there, and showed the band at its best. Every musician wants to do something that will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did that with ‘Stairway.’ ”

Performing a convincing solo in a group context is difficult for any musician, but it takes a real man to stand unaccompanied and deliver. On “Heartbreaker,” Jimmy Page did just that. For an electrifying 45 seconds, Page let loose sans rhythm section and, needless to say, the guitar world has never been quite the same.

“I just fancied doing it,” laughs Page. “I was always trying to do something different, or something no one else had thought of. But the interesting thing about that solo is that it was recorded after we had already finished “Heartbreaker”—it was an afterthought. That whole section was recorded in a different studio and was sort of slotted in the middle. If you notice, the whole sound of the guitar is different.

“The solo itself was made up on the spot. I think that was one of the first things I ever played through a Marshall. I was always having trouble with amps, and Marshalls were state-of-the-art reliability. By that time I was using a Les Paul, anyway, and that was just a classic setup.”

“We definitely recorded the solo section separately,” confirms engineer Eddie Kramer. “Jimmy walked in and set up and the whole session was over in about 20 minutes. He did two or three takes and we picked the best one, which was edited in later. However, to this day, I have a hard time listening to it, because I think we did a shitty edit—the difference in noise levels is pretty outrageous. But I don’t think Jimmy cared, he was more interested in capturing an idea, and on that level, he succeeded.”

Comments

This is the best online guitar lessons site imho. There are general lessons and note for note solos. Great teaching and a lot of free videos too. For solos, this guy has A LOT of Led Zep OFF THE RECORD. I've never seen anyone get Heartbreaker absolutely note for note like this guy. The site is

Just an FYI - There is a web-troll that goes by Ritchie Blackm0re (fan club dude, not the real guy) who develops websites (currently, more than 20) to discredit Led Zeppelin/Jimmy Page. If you log on to challenge him he blocks you. I guess this is some vain effort in dirty politics to elevate Deep Purple, whom I used to like. Now, not so much....

Soloing to a three chord rhythm or just playing a solo in the the middle of a song is a solo. This is known as a solo. I don't know if any one else has done this. Stopping in the middle of a song just to play a solo. Also this is tele verses gibson les paul.

The break solo on "Heartbreaker" is just a great example of the genius of Jimmy Page. It is a complete mess that you might hear from some kid trying to show off at Guitar Center if it wasn't played with drama in the middle of a rock classic tune followed by a great guitar interlude before it goes back to the main verse. A fantastic arrangement, to say the least. That said, I have to stick with the StH solo. It just has great tone, structure and feeling that I always enjoy listening to even though the song has been thoroughly worn out on the radio waves. To me it is up there with the solos on Moonage Daydream, Comfortably Numb, One Way Out, Like a Rock and The Messiah Will Come Again (Gary Moore Live at Montreaux). All of which are much better than the majority of solos in this little exercise here.

Yeah the Stairway solo is dead simple. No double HO PO, no behind the nut bends, none of what makes the Heartbreaker solo a tough workout. But that simply perfect bridge to the outro is beautifully composed and flawlessly executed. The vibrato on many of the bent notes,so sweet....the technique throughout blows me away. I "learned" these solos also but still don't sound like Jimmy...Party On!!!

Hmmm, lets see who should I vote for ... I think I'll go for Jimmy Page :) But really it's a no brainer a somewhat sloppily played solo that has no connection whatsoever with the song, contrasted with, arguably, the best song ever written (well, it is to me) with a solo that complements it so well that it's almost criminal.

So my vote goes to tada ..... "Heartbreaker", oops, temporary insanity there, it really goes the song that shall not be named :)

I learned both solos decades ago, and I still do not see what people find so staggering about the Stairway to Heaven solo. It's dead simple, and no more expressive than the solo in the Eagles' "One Of These Nights".

The song itself is a masterwork of composition and manipulating vintage studio tech, but the solo plays a very small role overall and Page was smart enough to not overplay it.

In "Hammer of the Gods" Jimmy offers another nugget of Zeppelin lore: he'd been using Les Pauls throughout the recording of the album most have become comfortable calling Led Zeppelin IV. But during the taping of Stairway's solo he set the Gibson down after several attempts to achieve the desired sound & created his masterpiece with a Strat in just one take.

Yep, it was a Tele. Look up or Google some old pics of Jimmy, he was playing Teles long before he took a liking to Les Pauls, and used a Tele extensively throughout his tenure in the Yardbirds. A lot of people don't realize that David Gilmour did also, despite associating him so much with a Strat. Another surprising piece of trivia: that iconic, big, crunchy intro riff from "Smoke on the Water" was played with a Strat, of all things!

Most of Page's recorded solos and other guitar work were played on a tele. The LP was mainly used on stage and Led Zep II. The real tone magic on the StH solo was a small Supro amp (the model escapes me at the moment) that Page used frequently in the studio and aa judicious amount of studio delay. Its funny how wrapped up people get with the gear used, when it really has much more to do with the person playing.